US gov't collecting huge number of phone records

JULIE PACE, AP

WASHINGTON (AP) — The government has been secretly collecting the telephone records of millions of U.S. customers of Verizon under a top secret court order, according to the chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. The Obama administration defended the National Security Agency's need to collect telephone records of U.S. citizens, but critics said it was a huge over-reach.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said Thursday that the top secret court order for telephone records is a three-month renewal of an ongoing practice. She spoke to reporters at a Capitol Hill news conference.

The sweeping roundup of U.S. phone records has been going on for years and was a key part of the Bush administration's warrantless surveillance program, a U.S. official said Thursday.

The White House offered no immediate on-the-record comment. A senior administration official did not confirm the Guardian newspaper report that the NSA has been collecting the records, but the authenticity of the document was not disputed by the White House. The administration official insisted on anonymity because the official was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly by name.

The order was granted by the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on April 25 and is good until July 19, the Guardian reported. The order requires Verizon, one of the nation's largest telecommunications companies, on an "ongoing, daily basis," to give the NSA information on all landline and mobile telephone calls of Verizon Business in its systems, both within the U.S. and between the U.S. and other countries.

The newspaper said the document, a copy of which it had obtained, shows for the first time that under the Obama administration the communication records of millions of U.S. citizens are being collected indiscriminately and in bulk, regardless of whether the people are suspected of any wrongdoing.

The disclosure raised a number of questions: What was the government looking for? Were other big telephone companies under similar orders to turn over information? How was the information used?

Former Vice President Al Gore tweeted that privacy was essential in the digital era.

"Is it just me, or is secret blanket surveillance obscenely outrageous?" wrote Gore, the Democrat who lost the 2000 presidential election to George W. Bush.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said the Obama administration should disclose the facts.

"I think that they have an obligation to respond immediately," said Wyden, a frequent critic of government actions dealing with Americans' privacy.

Under Bush, the National Security Agency built a highly classified wiretapping program to monitor emails and phone calls worldwide. The full details of that program remain unknown, but one aspect was to monitor massive numbers of incoming and outgoing U.S. calls to look for suspicious patterns, said an official familiar with the program. That official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss it publicly.

After The New York Times revealed the existence of that wiretapping program, the roundup continued under authority granted in the USA Patriot Act, the official said.

The official did not know if the program was continuous or whether it stopped and restarted at times.

The official had not seen the court order released by the Guardian newspaper but said it was consistent with similar authorizations the Justice Department has received.

Verizon spokesman Ed McFadden said Wednesday the company had no comment.

The NSA had no immediate comment. The agency is sensitive to perceptions that it might be spying on Americans. In a brochure it distributes, which includes a DVD for reporters to view video that it provides for public relations purposes, it pledges that the agency "is unwavering in its respect for U.S. laws and Americans' civil liberties — and its commitment to accountability," and says, "Earning the American public's trust is paramount."

Verizon Communications Inc. listed 121 million customers in its first-quarter earnings report this April — 98.9 million wireless customers, 11.7 million residential phone lines and about 10 million commercial lines. The court order didn't specify which customers' records were being tracked.

Under the terms of the order, the phone numbers of both parties on a call are handed over, as are location data, call duration, unique identifiers, and the time and duration of all calls. The contents of the conversation itself are not covered, The Guardian said.

The administration official said, "On its face, the order reprinted in the article does not allow the government to listen in on anyone's telephone calls."

The broad, unlimited nature of the records being handed over to the NSA is unusual. FISA court orders typically direct the production of records pertaining to a specific named target suspected of being an agent of a terrorist group or foreign state, or a finite set of individually named targets. NSA warrantless wiretapping during the George W. Bush administration after the 9/11 attacks was very controversial.

The FISA court order, signed by Judge Roger Vinson, compelled Verizon to provide the NSA with electronic copies of "all call detail records or telephony metadata created by Verizon for communications between the United States and abroad" or "wholly within the United States, including local telephone calls," The Guardian said.

The law on which the order explicitly relies is the "business records" provision of the USA Patriot Act.

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AP Intelligence Writer Kimberly Dozier and AP writers Matt Apuzzo and Adam Goldman contributed to this report.

Kenyan joy: Britain "regrets" colonial abuse

GREGORY KATZ, AP
( and the winners of the better late than never award goes to...)

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The wrinkled faces of the elderly Kenyans who gathered in a downtown Nairobi hotel registered gratitude, relief and joy Thursday as Britain's high commissioner said what many waited decades to hear.

Britain said it "sincerely regrets" the acts of torture a British colonial government carried out against Kenyans fighting for liberation from colonial rule in the 1950s and 1960s. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London insisted that an "expression of deep regret" was not the same thing as an apology, which would have legal implications. But the victims of British abuses a half-century ago appeared satisfied, even jubilant.

Several thousand now-elderly Kenyans say they were beaten and sexually assaulted by officers acting for the British administration trying to suppress the "Mau Mau" rebellion, during which groups of Kenyans attacked British officials and white farmers who had settled in some of Kenya's most fertile lands.

In London, Foreign Secretary William Hague told the House of Commons the government recognizes that Kenyans were subject to torture and other ill treatment. Thursday's settlement will pay about $21.5 million to the 5,200 Kenyans who were found to have been tortured, or about $4,100 per Kenyan victim. Another $9.25 million goes to pay costs to the Kenyans' legal team.

"This success is total jubilation. We are so happy today because the truth will be told worldwide," said Francis Mutisi, assistant secretary general of the Mau Mau War Veterans Association. Mutisi said he was detained by Britain's colonial government for three weeks in 1960 while looking for a job.

Martyn Day, a lawyer for the Kenyans, said he hopes Hague's statement will be "the final resolution of this legal battle that has been ongoing for so many years."

"The elderly victims of torture now at last have the recognition and justice they have sought for many years," Day added. "For them, the significance of this moment cannot be overemphasized."

The simultaneous announcement in Kenya's capital took on the air of a tribal celebration — or perhaps a joyful 50-year school reunion. Several dozen elderly Kenyans clapped hands, swayed ever so slightly and sung joyful songs of struggle during a nearly two-hour news conference attended by British High Commissioner Christian Turner.

"This era of history will remain controversial," Turner told the elderly Kenyans. But "history teaches us you can't have lasting peace with justice, accounting and reconciliation."

Britain has apologized, or come close to apologies in the past.

In 2009, Prime Minister Gordon Brown offered an apology for the "inhumane" treatment of Alan Turing, the World War II codebreaker who committed suicide in 1954 after being prosecuted for homosexuality and forcibly treated with female hormones.

In 2006, then-Prime Minister Tony Blair expressed "deep sorrow" for Britain's role in the trans-Atlantic slave trade, though some felt that fell short of a full apology. The next year he said: "I have said we're sorry and I say it again now."

And more recently, Prime Minister David Cameron, laid a mourning wreath at the site of a 1919 massacre of hundreds of Indians by British colonial forces during a recent visit there. He called the killings "a shameful event in British history."

The Mau Mau victims were led by Gitu wa Kahengeri, a diminutive veteran dressed in an oversized suit jacket.

"There is no amount of compensation that can cover for those who suffered," he said, noting that he and his father were detained for 10 years.

But he added: "The British government accepted that something bad happened, and this is what the veterans in this group have been seeking. The fact that an apology has been given is sufficient to atone for what happened."

The payouts, though low in Western terms, can still have an impact in Kenya, where per capita income is about $1,800. Despite the payout, Britain's government doesn't accept liability for the actions of previous colonial governments.

Caroline Elkins, a Harvard professor who wrote "Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya," said an acknowledgement that wrongs were committed is more important than money to the victims.

"The acknowledgment of the bitterness and the pain that they've been suffering for years, and the acknowledgment with a form of an apology, this has been a pre-eminent desire of theirs beyond any monetary claim," she said. "For years when I did my research and took testimony no one asked me for anything. They just wanted the world to know what happened."

The fight for justice may not yet be over. Atsango Chesoni, the executive director of the Kenyan Human Rights Commission, which has long been aiding the Mau Mau veterans, said her group will focus on getting the Kenyan government to atone for treatment of the Mau Mau.

"Many of the Mau Mau veterans have long-standing issues around land (rights). Many continue to live in abject poverty and squalor. We therefore hope that in the same way it was possible to have this dialogue with the British government, we will have the same dialogue with the Kenyan government," she said.

The British settlement follows a ruling by Britain's High Court in October that three Kenyans could pursue compensation claims. The Mau Mau payouts could set a precedent for other cases of abuse in other countries by Britain's colonial leaders. But Elkins said she doesn't think other cases are as strong as the Mau Mau case because of a lack of documented evidence.

The British government position is that each colonial case is unique.

For Nathan Kamothu, who arrived at the Hilton Hotel in a sharp blue suit and red tie, the settlement means that: "We've succeeded."

Thinking back to his arrest in 1952, the 75-year-old with a wide but mostly toothless smile said he had been arrested, seriously beaten and his legs tied up in chains.

"There was a lot of trouble and torture brought to us by the colonial masters," he said.

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Gregory Katz reported from London.

Feds fight morning-after pill age ruling in NY

NEW YORK (AP) — Department of Justice lawyers have again asked a federal appeals court in New York to delay lifting age restrictions and prescription requirements on an emergency contraceptive popularly known as the morning-after pill.

The lawyers filed court papers Friday seeking to delay implementation of a judge's April ruling lifting restrictions on medications including those sold under the brand name Plan B.

The stage has been set for another court showdown between President Barack Obama's administration and women's health activists over access to the contraceptive.

The 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals is scheduled to begin considering Tuesday whether to allow the judge's ruling to take effect immediately or delay it while further appeals are pending.

Lawyers for a group of women and parents say any further delay in access to the medication would harm "countless" women.

( the "plan B" pill is a brilliant idea, why people want to restrict access to this  baffles me, the young are who need it most, after all when else are you likely to make a foolish choice you might later regret than when you're young,why should it also have lifelong consequence?)

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Fire kills 119 at poultry plant in northeast China

BEIJING (AP) — A fire at a poultry plant in northeastern China trapped workers inside a cluttered slaughterhouse, killing at least 119 in one of China's worst industrial disasters in years despite recent work safety improvements.

Several dozen other people were hurt in Monday's blaze in Jilin province's Mishazi township, which appeared to have been sparked by three early morning explosions, the official Xinhua News Agency said. The provincial fire department attributed the blasts to an ammonia leak. The chemical is kept pressurized as part of the cooling system in meat processing plants.

The fire was one of China's worst recent industrial disasters, with the death toll the highest since a September 2008 mining cave-in that claimed 281 lives. It was the third major industrial blaze to be reported in China in the past four days. The two earlier fires were an oil tank explosion in Liaoning province that caused another oil tank to catch fire, killing two, and a blaze in a large granary in Heilongjiang province that wiped out 1,000 tons of grain.

For sale in NYC: Fridge with morbid history

NEW YORK (AP) — It's a fridge big enough for a family of four.
New York's Office of General Services has turned to eBay in an attempt to sell off a huge, steel morgue refrigerator now located at a Manhattan psychiatric hospital.
Bidding on Saturday afternoon was up to $475 for the four-drawer unit, but that price doesn't include delivery. Buyers have to be willing to remove the fridge themselves from the Manhattan Psychiatric Center.
Office of General Services spokeswoman Heather Groll tells the New York Post (http://bit.ly/11htBpM ) that the ad is no hoax.
She says the agency does get unusual surplus items to sell from time to time, including barber chairs from prisons and police cars, but she doesn't recall a previous sale of a morgue cooler.
The auction runs through June 6.

APNewsBreak: Prayers before SC woman killed family

 JEFFREY COLLINS, AP

 COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Hours before she killed her two sons, her ex-husband and her stepmother and tried to frame it on one of the slain children, Susan Hendricks gathered her family together to pray. She said she was worried about her older son, Matthew, because he seemed so down after several people forgot his birthday the day before.

(worst birthday present ever) 

 The audio of her three-hour interview with investigators, as well as 324 pages of documents and more than 600 crime scene photos, were released for the first time in response to a Freedom of Information Act request from The Associated Press.

A report from the crime scene said Burns' body was covered up in her bed as if she were sleeping. Five cartridge cases were found in and around a closet in her room. Matthew Hendricks was found in his bed with one gunshot wound to his head. His body had also been covered up.

Hendricks' sister Evelyn Burns told police it was she who dialed 911 after Hendricks called her and casually remarked during what started as a routine chat that her son had shot himself.

In her interview at the sheriff's office, when she still was claiming Matthew committed suicide, Hendricks explained why she didn't call authorities immediately.

"I didn't want to call EMS," she said. "I didn't want to call anybody because I didn't want them to come take him. I know it sounds crazy. I just thought, well, if I can sit here with him, it will all be OK."

She didn't speak much about Marshall, Mark Hendricks or Linda Burns during the three hours of questioning, but instead repeatedly turned the conversation back to Matthew.

She told investigators she heard nothing during the night and had walked to the kitchen — past a trail of blood in the living room — to make coffee when she found a note from Matthew. She said when she read it, she became alarmed he had harmed himself.

In the note, which reads more like a kind Mother's Day letter, Matthew thanked his "mama" for making him the man he has become and said he couldn't ask for a better mother.

Not guilty plea entered for 'Kai the Hitchhiker'

ELIZABETH, N.J. (AP) — A man who gained Internet fame as "Kai the Hatchet-Wielding Hitchhiker" has pleaded not guilty through a lawyer to a murder charge.

Caleb McGillivary appeared Monday in a Union County jail courtroom. The 24-year-old is accused of killing 73-year-old lawyer Joseph Galfy, whose body was found May 13 in his Clark home.

Wearing an oatmeal-colored T-shirt, McGillivary stood behind thick glass. He questioned Judge Brenda Coppola Cuba numerous times about his plea and bail.

Authorities say McGillivary and Galfy met in New York City. McGillvary stayed at Galfy's home. He was arrested in Philadelphia days later.

McGillivary took a star turn in February after intervening in an attack on a Fresno, Calif. utility worker.

He described himself as "home free" instead of homeless and said he's from West Virginia. He is actually Canadian

(KAI THE HATCHET WIELDING HITCH HIKER, sounds like the title for an Indie horror film)